


Controlled

by idkimoutofideas



Series: febuwhump 2021 [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Mind Control, Team as Family, Temporary Character Death, Whump, bc you know stolen century stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29141940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idkimoutofideas/pseuds/idkimoutofideas
Summary: Magnus, Taako, and Lucretia go out on a mission to retrieve the light. Things don't go as planned.Written for Febuwhump day 1: mind control
Relationships: Magnus Burnsides & Taako
Series: febuwhump 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2154915
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Controlled

They’ve hammered out a solid routine over the years. Racking up wins and losses as they slowly figure out what works and what ends with everyone dead.

So far, it’s mostly gone like this: after landing, they set up a watch until the light falls. It’s both easy and hard to miss. Though the light doesn’t always land on their side of the planet, they all feel a pull once it enters the plane, dragging their attention and focus away for a moment, and they’re filled with the desire to chase after it, like nothing else in the world could possibly matter.

Then, Magnus takes one to four others off after it, depending on how dangerous the planet is and how much help they’ll need retrieving the light versus dealing with any locals. Sometimes they take the ship, sometimes they set off on foot.

And of course all of that assumes that nothing else has gone sideways in the meantime.

There’s always a long stretch of time between when the light falls and when Magnus goes out on the mission. The others need to ‘get ready’ and ‘plan’ and do all that other stuff while he’s just sitting and waiting. Waiting for them to overthink and analyze everything that might happen. Waiting for them to make decisions and finish double checking every little detail. Waiting until he can actually be of use.

They’re currently in cycle… thirty something. Magnus doesn’t bother keeping track, he lets the others do that. The world they land in isn’t very dangerous, but the locals - who are all elves - are a little  _ too _ interested in the Starblaster and all its valuable parts. Magnus ends up bringing only Taako and Lucretia. 

“All I’m saying is it wouldn’t kill Merle to wait a few extra months before going and getting killed by the Hunger.” Taako’s voice cuts through the trees as they walk. He’s about thirty or so feet off to Magnus’ right, and Lucretia is walking about halfway between them.

Barry and Lup have been working together over the decades they’ve been doing this thing to try and find a way to track the light. They’ve… sort of figured it out? Magnus doesn’t really understand it and doesn’t try too hard. Barry does some complicated math based on the trajectory of the light and it’s speed, and Lup designed a spell/device thing that could track the light once they got close enough, though they had to be fairly close. Within the past few years Lucretia created a spell that could detect strong magical energy signatures -  _ any _ strong magical energy signatures, and they’d gone chasing through magical forests more than once. 

Like this one, for example.

Magnus swats more branches out of the way as he walks. Why are so many of the planets they visit covered in magical forests?

“He just doesn’t want to wait around for a whole year.” Magnus replies to Taako. He hates waiting the few months it takes to get the mission ready to go and retrieve the light. He can’t imagine waiting a whole  _ year _ to do his job. And what if Merle dies before he can do the parley? They need whatever information he can get.

“All I’m saying is he could've waited at least a  _ little  _ longer. Long enough to let us, I don’t know, retrieve the light with a full team?” Taako asks sarcastically. Magnus rolls his eyes and doesn’t reply. The only person who can get Taako out of one of his rants is Lup, and since she’s the second biggest damage dealer in the crew, she stayed back to guard the ship.

Lucretia stops walking suddenly and makes a small noise.

“Luce?” Magnus starts moving towards her immediately, and he can hear Taako doing something similar. She’s frowning at the device in her hands, tapping on it and spinning slowly in a circle.

“I think it’s malfunctioning.” Lucretia says. “It’s tracking a magical energy signature but whatever it is, is moving around a lot. Forty feet off to the right, thirty feet off to the left, thirty five feet up ahead, twenty five feet behind…”

“What, it’s teleporting around?” Taako drawls as he peers over her shoulder at the device.

“Yes, but there’s a pattern to it.”

“Oh see you’ve got it calibrated to the wrong frequency-”

“Well I checked that-”

Magnus tunes out their magic talk and takes up post behind both of them, keeping an eye out for anything dangerous. He’s not expecting much. So far the planet has been pretty quiet. The people who live here have mostly been too skittish to interact with them for long, the occasional few will show interest in their ship and technology, but they seemed more freaked out than anything. 

Something catches his eye off in the trees, and Magnus tenses slightly, his hands going to rest on the handle of his axe. A strange chill runs through him as the hairs on the back of his neck stand up straight and he stares into the trees.

He’s about to warn the others when a wave of dizziness washes over him. His vision goes fuzzy and he collapses to his knees… or he would have. If he was in control of his body. 

He can’t move. Can’t even blink. He can barely make out anything around him, it’s all dark and fading and there's a loud whisper in his ears that’s promising him strength and power and glory and Magnus wants to say no but he can’t-

He’s barely aware that he raises his axe, and then his vision goes black.

* * *

Taako isn’t expecting it.

Why the  _ fuck _ would he be expecting Magnus to attack him? Magnus is on their team, he’s supposed to be helping. Taakos only thought as he’s sent flying through the air is that this is what he gets for trusting someone other than Lup, he should’ve known this would happen, that someone would get greedy and try to take the light for themselves. Taako was stupid for ever believing he could trust these people. That he could trust anyone other than Lup.

His second thought is more of a realization that he’s still alive. Magnus surprise attacked him and he’s still alive.

Hurt.  _ Very  _ hurt. But alive, and coherent. And not even missing any limbs.

Well, maybe he's not as coherent as he thought, because when Taako looks up from where he’s slumped at the base of a tree, Magnus is swinging his axe around wildly and Lucretia is doing her best to dodge out of the way and they’re surrounded on all sides by pale, spectral figures.

“Magnus, stop!” Lucretia shouts. It’s the most panicked Taako has ever heard her sound, normally she stays so calm and collected even under the worst circumstances. Magnus doesn’t stop, but Taako swears he sees Magnus hesitate for a fraction of a second.

Taako finally stumbles to his feet. “Dude what the fuck?” He asks as he makes a big show of brushing himself off.

Magnus swings his axe around him and slams the flat of the blade against Lucretia’s chest, sending her sprawling to the ground. A cold pit opens up in Taako’s stomach as he realizes Magnus easily could’ve cut her in half.

Magnus finally wheels around to face Taako, and his expression freezes Taako in his tracks.

Magnus looks… empty. His face is completely blank, his eyes glazed over and missing their usual spark of life. He looks through Taako, and the lack of emotion on his face is the most unnerving thing Taako has ever seen. He would say Magnus looks dead, except- no, that’s not quite right. Taako has seen Magnus dead before - only once so far, thankfully, because the big idiot has a tendency to run headlong into danger - and even when dead, Magnus still had the ghost of a smile on his face.

Taako is so thrown off by the emptiness in Magnus’ eyes that he almost doesn’t dodge the axe that flies towards his head. Instincts take over and Taako ducks, quickly casting  _ Thunderwave _ and throwing Magnus ten feet back.

Magnus crashes into a tree and falls limp, and Taako feels a little bad about it, but brushes that away as he reasons that Magnus was about to chop his head off, so he feels justified in his action. Taako glances over at Lucretia and realizes that the spectral figures he saw earlier weren’t his imagination, and she is currently surrounded by them and is firing off a barrage of spells to keep them at bay. He’s about to take a step forward to help her when Magnus lifts himself back to his feet, the same blank expression on his face. He attacks Taako, who swiftly dodges out of the way.

The fight is on, and Taako wants to get out of it so he can help Lucretia fight off the weird ghost creatures, but Magnus is making that very hard. Taako doesn’t want to hurt Magnus, but Magnus seems to have no such qualms, and Taako is running out of options.

Taako finally disarms Magnus, sending the axe flying into some bushes. He’s about to celebrate when Magnus lunges forward, and fingers lock around Taako’s throat. He loses his grip on his wand as he’s slammed backwards into a tree, and panic bubbles up in his chest when he realizes he can’t breathe. He claws uselessly at Magnus’ hands, but can’t do anything to loosen the hold. 

Magnus lifts Taako slightly in the air, until his toes are only barely brushing against the ground.

“Magnus, please…” The words are squeezed out of Taako’s lungs, barely even a whisper, an involuntary plea as his vision goes gray.

Taako is face to face with Magnus, so he sees Magnus’ expression flicker ever so slightly, a slight twitch as his eyes widen in horror, and his grip loosens a fraction of an inch. It’s enough for Taako to take a breath and cast a spell.

‘ _ I’m sorry _ .’ Taako thinks. Suddenly the hands wrapped around his throat vanish, and Taako collapses to the ground, his vision swimming as he takes big, heaving breaths.

“Oh…” Magnus’ voice is uncharacteristically soft, and Taako forces himself to look up. Magnus is standing above him, looking down at where the handle of a large spectral kitchen knife is embedded deep in his chest, his mouth open slightly in surprise. Magnus falls to the ground in a heap, giving Taako a clear view of the rest of the fight.

Lucretia is holding her own in the fight, the number of ghosts around her significantly reduced. Taako hauls himself to his feet when another spectral form rises up out of Magnus’ body and turns to look at him.

“Taako, please.” The ghost says in Magnus’ voice.

“Oh fuck you.” Taako grabs his wand and sends out a high level  _ Chain Lightning _ . A ball of pure energy strikes the figure in front of him, dissolving it into cobwebs that float away in the breeze before it bounces around the other ghosts around them, doing the same thing to several more before it fizzles out.

Lucretia can definitely handle the rest now, and Taako takes a stumbling step towards Magnus. He knows immediately that there’s nothing he can do. The knife is gone, so Taako can clearly see the blood that has already soaked through the entirety of Magnus’ shirt, and how he’s no longer breathing.

Still, Taako drops to his knees and presses his hands against the wound on Magnus’ chest, as if he can undo his actions if he wishes hard enough.

Distantly, Taako realizes he was right about one thing: even in death Magnus still has a slight smile on his face.

“Taako?” A hand lands on his shoulder and he jumps slightly.

“Fuck.” Taako lets out a shaky breath. Lucretia doesn't say anything else, and Taako can’t make himself move because… he killed Magnus. He  _ killed _ Magnus. Magnus is dead, and it’s Taako’s fault.

He knows, in some distant logical part of his brain, that Magnus will be fine. That he’ll come back the same as always at the start of the next cycle, that it’s not permanent. That future is all well and good, but it doesn’t help the fact that Taako is kneeling over the body of his friend and it feels pretty fucking permanent. 

Taako jerks to his feet and takes several stumbling steps backwards, his gaze still fixed on the body in front of him. His line of sight is cut off as someone steps in front of him, and it takes Taako a second to focus on Lucretia.

“Taako? Are you alright?” She asks quietly.

He wants to say no, that he’s definitely not alright, that he just killed his friend and holy shit how could he be alright-

“Yeah.” He says instead. “Yeah I’m-” his voice is higher than normal, and he trails off as he catches sight of the blood on his hands. Magnus’ blood.

He’s vaguely aware that he’s hyperventilating, but he can’t bring himself to care or do anything about it.

Lucretia waves her hands and mutters a few words and the blood disappears, and Taako can breathe a little easier for it. He’s still sick with his own actions, and he turns on his heel to stalk off into the woods, unable to stay there.

He knows he shouldn’t leave Lucretia, that he should help somehow, but… he can’t. He waits fifty feet away, leaning against a tree, and does his best not to throw up.

* * *

_ Nothing. _

_ Pain. _

_ Nothing. _

_ Light. _

Magnus blinks at the sudden brightness and the appearance of the Starblaster. He’s standing on the bridge with the others, like they always reset to. The same scene as always, and for a moment Magnus is comforted by the familiarity of it.

The serenity is broken when a brightly colored and very angry elf shoves his way into Magnus’ space.

“You! Stupid! Fucking! Asshole!” Every word is punctuated with a punch, and Magnus is half annoyed that Taako is punching him, and half impressed at the fact that the punches actually sting. 

“Hey-” Magnus tries to catch one of Taakos wrists, but he slips out of his grasp.

“You self sacrificial idiot!”

Magnus finally pushes Taako far enough away to actually look at him, and he’s surprised to see the elf furiously blinking back tears. Out of the corner of his eyes Magnus notices the rest of the crew slip quietly out of the room, leaving Magnus alone with one very pissed off Taako.

Taako lunges at Magnus again, and he braces himself for another attack that he definitely deserves, so he’s surprised when Taako throws his arms around Magnus instead. Magnus freezes, unsure how to react to the sudden change in energy, and after a moment he very slowly lowers his arms around Taako, as if he was dealing with a skittish animal.

“Don’t make me do that again.” Taako’s face is buried against Magnus’ chest, but he can still hear it waver. Magnus doesn’t respond, and instead holds Taako a little tighter, and doesn’t comment on the growing wet spot on his shirt.


End file.
